November 10th 2023.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has recently highlighted the significance of expediting the process of filling up the vacant posts in the State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA). This Authority was established in 2014 under the Supreme Court’s judgement to act as a quasi-judicial body to oversee the functioning of the police authorities in the state and hear citizens’ grievances against the functioning of the police authorities.
The court pointed out the importance of filling up the vacancies, as otherwise, it could potentially impede the functioning of the SPCA. The court also directed the government to file an affidavit providing details of the steps taken to spread awareness about the SPCA.
A division bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor was hearing a public interest litigation filed by activist Medha Patkar and a law student Jinay Jain. Advocate PP Kakade, representing the State, informed the court that the policy regarding the procedure of outsourcing staff to fill up the vacancies in the staff at the state and divisional levels was being reconsidered.
Advocate Yashodeep Deshmukh, appearing for the petitioners, stated that the court’s orders had enabled the SPCA to receive some publicity. However, he also noted that the State had not clarified if boards had been put up at all the police stations informing citizens about the SPCA.
The bench hence asked the government to collect information from all the police stations regarding the steps taken to publicise the functions of the authority.
The government informed the court that they had advertised in newspapers to publicise the SPCA. In addition, the Director General of Police had been instructed to provide wide publicity to the functions of the authority in every police station. The HC has kept the matter for further hearing on January 3.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
